Parisian duo
Polo & Pan (Paul Armand-Delille and Alexandre Grynszpan, respectively) have made a name for themselves as producers of infectious, bouncy electronic pop with strong tropical highlights and a colorful, sometimes retro aesthetic. Their 2017 debut album,
Caravelle, featured a panoply of quirky samples and singers and stood out thanks to both its tight craft and loungey elegance.
Polo & Pan's delightful 2020 EP
Feel Good seems to have been a precursor to this second full-length,
Cyclorama, as three of the EP's four cuts have been folded into this set. Like the duo's debut,
Cyclorama is fashionable, melodic, and undeniably fun, mixing dancefloor appeal with smart pop songwriting. Not unlike their European forebears
Air and
Röyksopp,
Polo & Pan blur the lines between electronic music's traditional roles of producer, artist, DJ, remixer, and composer, managing a bit of each with plenty of finesse while creating a distinctive brand of their own. And they sing! The cinematic "Ani Kuni'' is the album's showstopper here with its cinematic
Morricone-like intro and choral melody based on an Indigenous Arapaho chant. The album's sequence winds through carefully paced moods, pitting dark against light with the eerie "Requiem" into "Feel Good" combo before moving into its second half.
Polo & Pan have an impressive sense of scope, moving through myriad exotic landscapes without losing sight of their signature sonic palette and innate sense of class. The result feels like a sumptuous global journey accompanied by a cocktail tray and two impossibly suave tuxedoed guides. ~ Timothy Monger